Warrior's Bay
by jj.shenanigan
Summary: AU. The eight greatest benders and warriors from the four greatest nations in the world face off against the eight greatest benders and warriors in the universe. Who will become a student at the Ba Sing Se School for Gifted Benders and Warriors? Zutara.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, just the original scenarios and what-not here. This is also an AU. Hope you like it, and if you do or don't, reviews on how to make it better or just reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks :)**

**Prologue**

In the very center of a dark room was a small flickering bulb, set high above a table that was hidden beneath the shadows of its vast surroundings. Five men sat around the wooden table, blanketed from head to toe in the finest of their nation's robes and four of the five also held a roll of parchment in their bejeweled hands. The men sat with indifference written upon their faces as their evaluations began.

One by one the men began to set down the pieces of parchment and one by one the most gifted students of their nations were being made known. The fifth man, though, sat with a large smile on his face and watched, for he needed not to bring about his most gifted students. The light above the men flickered violently, and startled, the four other men slowly looked up to see fire rapping around the air above.

With a gush of wind, the men's robes (fifth man excluded) flew all around them, exposing their undergarments. The four powerful men looked from one to the other and then down to see that their parchments were gone.

The fifth stood up, placing the parchments into his robes, and a blinding light filled the room around them as a circle of fire erupted around the table. A cold chill ran through the four other men as wind resonated through their bodies. They all looked to the head of the table at the fifth man and gasped.

A boy with a fierce gaze and flaming red tattoo curling up his arm stood to the fifth man's left, his fist curled and exhibiting light and fire. And to the fifth man's right was a smaller boy set in a meditation stance as he balanced himself on top of an air ball. Tattoos ran across his barren arms and one could be seen visible peeking out through his messy black hair.

The four men gasped. They had heard of the great Aang and the fierce Zuko, but the two boys had been said to have faded into obscurity over the past seven years. No one knew that the fifth man, Master Bumi of the Ba Sing Se School for Gifted Benders and Warriors, had been training them himself.

The four men, each a leader of a nation, stood and bowed to the man and boys standing at the head of the table. Aang, the calmer of the two students, stood upon his air ball and bowed back to the men, a pleasant smile on his face, but Zuko, who greatly contradicted Aang, grunted and glared at the fire bending leader as he bowed his head slightly.

Master Bumi looked around with his wild eyes and took in the sight of the four men in undergarments before laughing and snorting in pleasure.

"My, my Aang, that sure was a good bonus you put out there for all of us, but if you don't mind, I think our guests would much rather enjoy our presence in clothing."

Aang smirked to himself and shot a look at Zuko who was desperately trying to hide his laughter, before Aang then conjured up their clothing and whisked it back onto the four leaders. As another light joke from Aang, the fire bending leader and the water bending leader had on each other's clothes. It was a widely known fact that two had minor issues with each other. Not to mention they were at war.

Bumi noticed this slip from Aang, but out of pure pleasure from the switch, chose not to say anything, for the two men stood side by side looking up to Bumi and hadn't even noticed the robes they wore.

Bumi revealed the dispatched parchments and placed them upon the table.

"These eight students are now seen as your masters, for they have been chosen by you to come into my home and learn from the greatest masters in the world; but you see, they must have an evaluation of their own. In order for your students to come into my home, they must defeat my students in a battle, an Agni Kai of sorts."

As Master Bumi said the last part of his speech he back away into the darkness and six other students of the Ba Sing Se School were revealed.

Jet, the greatest and most rebellious warrior of his time, stood beside his best friend Zuko with his arms crossed over his chest. Haru, the gifted earth bender stood next to Aang. Mai, a woman sheathed with swords and knives stood next to Haru, an apathetic look upon her beautiful face. Yue, a greatly feared water bending master, stood on the other side of Zuko, her long mane of silver hair falling down to her side. Liang Kai, a boy known for his masterful use of the samurai sword, stood beside Mai. And lastly, Kane, the air bending warrior, stood beside Aang and Haru, her own tattoo peeking out of her long dark hair.

The eight greatest benders and warriors of the age stood together in harmony.

Fear shot throughout the four men as they stared in awe at the legends that stood before them. Each of these people were but children to the four men, but they could kill the men with one look.

"That will be all, gentlemen. If your students want to come to my home, then their destiny lies at Warrior's Bay in the outskirts of Ba Sing Se." came the sing-song voice of Master Bumi as it echoed throughout the room, and suddenly the ring of fire disappeared along with the children. All that remained was four men, a table, a small flickering bulb, and four pieces of parchment.

* * *

**There, hope you liked it. Please review and I guess I'm partially all right with flames, as long as there's some constructive criticism thrown in there too. Well, you come back now, ya hear.**


	2. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, just the original scenarios and what-not here. This is also an AU. Hope you like it, and if you do or don't, reviews on how to make it better or just reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks :)**

* * *

**Chapter One**

For anyone else, the Northern water lights would have been a magnificent sight. When the earliest hours of the morning and the latest hours of the night mingled together, a vast sea of light and color would erupt in the sky and reflect off of the water, slicing through the ice burgs like light through a prism. This phenomenon was one of the greatest wonders of the world and the Southern water tribes always joked that Northerners had no problem with relaying that fact to anyone that crossed their path.

To the young south water nation woman, Katara, it was indeed a sight to behold, but as she stood at bow of her father's ship, the lights only reminded her that in an hour's time the infiltration of the fire nation's campsite outside of the Northern Water Tribe's kingdom would begin. She shuddered at the thought of her brother, her father, and herself in the danger of losing their own lives and each other once again. Katara remembered when she had begged to go with Sokka and her father instead of staying with her grandmother and shook her head in dismay.

It was vengeance that fueled her want to fight beside her father and brother. In her heart she knew she was wrong, but a constant tick in her mind kept on telling her the more fire benders she hurt…the more fire benders she killed…would some how help her deal with the murder of her mother.

Katara had been simply staring into the water, unaware that her reflection stared blankly back at her, but when she did notice this, her face contorted into a glare and she spit into the previously undisturbed waters. Just like that, a fire was lit in her heart and anger seared throughout her soul. She had grown to hate herself over the past three years of fighting and killing. Katara had never imagined herself a warrior when she was a child, but after General Ozai of the fire nation had attacked her village and killed her mother by his very own hand, she vowed she'd bring death upon him.

"Katara?" came the voice of her brother.

Katara heard Sokka but chose to ignore him as she proceeded to glare at the ripples forming in the water below her. She reached her hand above it and subconsciously raised the water up and played with it in her palm.

"_Katara?_" Sokka replied again, a twinge of annoyance forming into his words that time. Katara sighed and let the water go before turning to face her brother.

"What, Sokka. What could you possibly want?" said Katara as she glared at her brother. His only reaction was to glare back.

The two of them had been such good friends when they were little. Wherever there was Sokka there was Katara, and vice versa. They had once been inseparable, but as the two grew in age they also grew apart. Katara was a bender and Sokka was simply a warrior. Even though each of them was the most gifted and deadliest of their kind, their differences still caused the two to drift apart.

"It isn't what I want, Katara. It's what Dad wants. He has requested that both of us see him in the war room."

"For what? I already know the plan," replied Katara, a sense of bitter pride coursing through her body.

"You think he and I don't already know that? Good Lord, Katara, would please do us all a favor and stop being an insufferable bitch for like, two seconds?" snapped back Sokka with a grimace on his face.

The two stood like black and white tearing each other down with their angry looks. Katara felt her heart break a little bit more every time she fought with her brother. She never understood why Sokka hadn't received the water bending gene. A part of her wanted desperately to end the feud. Another part of her, the dominant part, knew that she would never do that. It would hurt her pride and that was unacceptable behavior.

"Masters Katara and Sokka, your father must see now."

The two teenagers tore their glares away from each other and their eyes settled on a young warrior. Katara's heart ached for this boy as she looked at him. He was no older than thirteen, and yet he would be risking his life right along with Katara, Sokka, and about five-hundred other warriors and benders. The boy had innocent eyes. He had never seen death before. Katara was sure of it.

"Come on," mumbled Sokka as he walked past the boy, staring down at his feet. Katara knew that the boy would bother Sokka as well, but for a much different reason. Sokka had been thirteen during the village war with General Ozai. He had been fighting alongside his father's side, and he had killed a man for the first time. Katara knew that Sokka had nightmares about that night. It was the night he lost his innocence. Seeing death is the worse thing a child can endure…It was also the night Katara witnessed General Ozai kill her mother.

Katara sighed and followed her brother into the war room. It was a large room with a long wooden table in the middle and about twenty five chairs set all around it. Behind the table was a map of all the nations. Half of the map was full of red markings, and the other half was barraged with blue ones. The blue marks symbolized water nation land, and water nation victories. The red markings were symbolizations of the fire nation. There was a large yellow circle around one of the fire nation markings at the top of the map. That was there location.

In front of the map stood Katara and Sokka's father, looking it up and down and examining the land that they had gained back from fire nation enemies.

"You wanted to see us father?" asked Katara softly. She remembered times when Sokka, her father, and herself would laugh and have fun together, but when they were on that ship it was all war and politics. They weren't family, they were acquaintances.

"Yes," he replied softly and almost uncertainly. On the table behind him was a piece of torn and tattered parchment. On it was a picture of Katara and separate picture of Sokka. It also had their formal names upon it. The two looked from the parchment back up to each other and then to their father for some sort of explanation.

"Do you remember the old stories of the legend of Master Bumi that Gran Gran would tell you when you were little?"

Katara and Sokka exchanged a quick glance before the two of them nodded, serious looks on their curious faces.

"Every seven years the great evaluation would begin and leaders from every nation would join together under Master Bumi's watchful eye. They joined in secret meetings to reveal the greatest warriors of their nations. And then…one year, it ended. No one heard of the great Master Bumi ever again…Seven years ago some of the greatest warriors and benders I had ever seen, children no less, went missing. I never realized that…"

Katara stared in disbelief at her father's trailed off statement. Although he never finished saying it, Katara knew where his rant was going, and she just couldn't bring herself to believe…

"What does this have to do with anything?" asked Sokka as a relieved look washed over his face. He had just been appointed as one of the leaders for battle and he didn't want to get anything wrong or leave anything out when he relayed their actions to the fighters.

"This has everything to do with everything…but I'm not going to Warrior's Bay. I'm not leaving you here, Dad! No way! Not in a million years!" yelled Katara. She walked over to her father and tried to hug him but was pushed away.

"You know I'm known not as your father here, Katara," was his hushed reply.

"Oh, I forgot, _General Hokoda_."

Katara and her father stood right next to each other, and yet on different sides of the universe. Her glare reached higher levels of hate as she tore her gaze into her father, and Hokoda's solemn look of grief was the mirror of a rainy day.

"Warrior's Bay…"

The two looked away from each other and over to Sokka who stood in skeptic contemplation. He was confused. He thought that the legend of Warrior's Bay was nothing more than a legend. It was a bedtime story to help Sokka and Katara fall asleep at night when they were children…not something that was very much real.

"Yes, Sokka, Warrior's Bay. You and Katara are the two chosen ones for the water nation, and I'm not letting you pass this chance up!" said Hokoda as he pushed past Katara and walked around the table to Sokka.

"Great warriors like Aang the airbender, Yue the water bending master, and Zuko—"

"Zuko, as in General Ozai's Zuko? The greatest fire bender the world has ever seen?" asked Katara as she walked around the table, a new light of vengeance burning inside of her.

"Yes!" said Hokoda, blatantly unaware of what was going on in his daughter's head.

Katara watched as Sokka and her father spoke to each other animatedly. They hugged and laughed and smiled and joked…they were excited and happy. Katara had once been like them, but when she shunned Sokka out of her life she also did the same with the rest of her family. It was too late to gain back that emotion of love, and that was exhibited when her own father pulled away from Katara's hug.

In her mind, a new table had turned. She thought about all the fire benders and all the fighters she had killed and she realized it didn't matter because she hadn't killed _the_ fire bender.

"I'll go to Warrior's Bay."

Hokoda and Sokka turned and looked toward Katara, but she simply walked past them and out of the war room. Once again she found herself at the bow of her father's ship, and a whisper in her brain like a sick infection flowed through her blood vessels and seeped into her heart.

_General Ozai took away something dear to me, and I'm going to take away something dear from him. I'm going to kill Zuko..._

_

* * *

_**All righty. Now you've been introduced to Katara and her plan of vengeance…yeah, I know it's SO not like Katara, but seriously…it's an AU. Hope you liked it! Thanks to everyone who read and liked the first chapter. Review, and I don't mind constructive criticism! It helps :)**


	3. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, just the original scenarios and what-not here. This is also an AU. Hope you like it, and if you do or don't, reviews on how to make it better or just reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks :)**

**Be fore-warned. This one is more of a filler, just to leave you guys in suspense of the action yet to come...I think this chapter it total and complete crap by the way, but don't be turned off. The next chapter is awesome...I hope :)**

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Chapter Two

The boy sat and gazed into the fire, letting the flames reflect in his amber eyes. Memories sifted throughout his mind.

When he was younger he was a part of a broken family. His father was away for three-quarters of his life, and his mother died some years ago. He and his sister lived in a large sea-side home with no one but the housekeepers. When the boy turned nine he practiced the art of fire bending nonstop and he trained vigorously until they said he was the best. His sister grew bitter and jealous of him and she too went away. The boy then had no one.

One spring, when the flowers were in full bloom and the boy who had become so cold and alone was meditating in the garden, a man came. The man who came was elderly, but very strong. He had long graying hair and bright amber eyes that became even brighter when he saw the boy, but the boy didn't know him so he turned the man away. The man came back day after day until one day the boy spoke to him.

"Who are you and why do you come here? What's your problem, old man?" said the boy angrily and viciously, as if he was an animal.

The elderly man cocked his head to the side and a lop-sided grin spread across his face.

"Why, young boy, do you sit in the garden alone, when you can be with seven others just like you?"

The boy frowned and huffed and turned away from the old man again, but that time, just as the old man was leaving the garden once again, the boy stopped him. He was curious as to what the old man had been talking about. Seven others just like him? What did that mean? Were there people who were alone like him? Was there someone there who could make him feel like he was someone?

All of these questions ran through the boy's mind, but he knew even if there were people like him, his anger and pride would keep him from leaving his home. He just wanted to know if there really were others, and if there really were seven of them.

"Hey! Old man! Wait! What do you mean others like me?"

The boy realized he had said it arrogantly and almost as though he was slightly more important the old man, but ignored this and just stared at the man, waiting for a reply.

"Well, young boy, why don't you sit down and have some ginseng tea?" replied the old man with that smile on his face.

The boy was curious, still, and wanted to know what the man had meant, so he cleared the table of his home and asked one of the housekeepers to make some hot tea for him and his guest. A moment later, the two sat down and the boy waited and sighed impatiently for the old man to finish his tea.

"Have you ever heard of the Ba Sing Se School for Gifted Benders and Warriors?" asked the old man as casually as if he would have asked the time of day.

The boy frowned. This was what he had waited for?

"Look, old man, I don't want to have some sort of small talk about some fictional place. I want to know what you meant when you said there were seven others…seven others just like me."

The boy paused and thought of what he had just said. Seven plus one…plus _him_, would equal eight. But it was—

"Impossible, yes?" said the old man with that lop-sided grin on his face, and the boy nodded toward him. "I'm a teacher there, you know. I used to be a great fire bending master, even greater than my brother. I was walking near the market and heard that he's now a general in the fire nation's army. My only hope was that he left his children with someone who could love them, but see, my brother failed me in that area."

The boy, who had been staring at his own amber eyes reflected by his tea gasped slightly and his head whipped up only to meet what could have been his gaze once more. The elderly man watched the boy carefully and the boy watched the elderly man carefully. The boy, who was once apart of a broken family, was taken in by his Uncle Iroh, one of the greatest fire benders in the world, and became a part of a family with seven others just like him. Just like his Uncle Iroh had said he would.

Zuko smiled at the memory and looked away from the fire and down at his arm. He laughed aloud at the circumstances in which he had gained the tattoo upon his arm.

It was a bet. When he was twelve, he and Jet had been stealing and hiding Kane's arrows. They were special arrows that were said to only be touched by air bending warrior hands, and to be an air bending warrior, one would have to endure the pain of receiving a tattoo from the air bending monks.

When Monk Gyatsu found out that Zuko and Jet had been the ones pulling pranks on Kane, he bet them that they would never be able to endure the pain Kane had to receive their own special arrows. Zuko's arrogance greatly exceeded his own brainpower so he sat for two weeks straight, allowing monks to chisel a twisting and turning ring of fire from the tip of his hand all the way up to his shoulder blade. Jet almost chickened out, but after Zuko lied and said it was a piece of cake, he stayed with the monks for _three_ weeks. Two for the tattoo of his blades on his back, and one for extensive medication because of the "pain".

When Jet came back he told Kane he was sorry and that she was his new hero for actually letting the monks chisel an arrow into her head when she was a kid. He also told Zuko that he was happy that he wasn't a woman because the monks told him that it would be worse to go through childbirth.

Zuko stood up and put his hand into his pocket, subconsciously playing with a necklace that his father had given him inside. It was meant to be for Azula, his sister, but when General Ozai had come home Azula had already left. General Ozai was a mess that night. He barged into the house and kicked the housekeepers out. Once they were gone he threw things all across the home and did everything to keep from crying.

Zuko had never seen his father act that way up until that point.

He later learned from his father through a letter that the pressures of being a general and having to kill young boys and men who hadn't had lives yet was getting to him. He also revealed in his letter that by a mistake he had killed a woman at a water bending tribe right in front of her daughter. Enclosed in the letter was the necklace that the woman wore around her neck.

General Ozai had carried it as a reminder of what a monster he had become, but was sick of it and tired of seeing it.

Zuko had kept it with him at all times every since, to remind him that he couldn't and wouldn't be what his father had become.

With that, Zuko quietly walked up the steps to where his room was. With a flick of his wrist the fire extinguished itself. In just a day he would have to fight someone in order to gain his spot as a student again. He was afraid of what would happen and if he would see some of his closest friends ever again, but he knew one thing and that was the little girl who saw her mother die was going to be one of the new comers.

Zuko paused just before he entered into his room and took a deep breath.

He decided he would give the necklace to her, because it was rightfully hers, but in the back of his mind he knew that it wouldn't be that simple. She would know who he was and Zuko had a feeling that the girl wouldn't be too pleased to see him. He sighed again and closed the door behind him. After he heard the door lock into place he walked to his bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Katara's eyes were wide open as she laid her head down upon her pillow. Her father had refused to let her and Sokka fight in the fire nation camp raid. Instead he put the two of them on a boat with his most trusted crew and sent them on their way to Ba Sing Se. 

Katara kept on thinking about what she was going to do when she got to Warrior's Bay. She refused to think about her plan for revenge. It only made her feel horrible, and yet angry at the same time. Over the past few days on the ship she had thought and thought about what she was going to do when she finally met the son of her mother's killer, and she kept on coming to the same conclusion. She was going to kill him, simple as that.

But just as that would come into her mind, guilt and sorrowfulness would follow. And just as the guilt and sorrowfulness would go away, confusion would then plague her. She wondered why she was so unsure of herself when just three days ago she was up to ears in ideas of how she could fulfill her plan.

Katara growled in frustration and turned to her side, a frown placed upon her delicate features. The moonlight reflected off of her brilliantly colored, sapphire eyes and through her window in the distance she could see the Northern Water Lights fading away.

She sighed to herself and shut her eyes, snuggling up into the large wool blanket that cocooned her body.

_Tomorrow I fight at Warrior's Bay._

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**A****ll right, Zuko seems slightly OOC, but I promise, I'm going to do my best in the chapters to come to make him the arrogant, angsty, ahem hott prince that we all know and love. Except the prince part. If you haven't noticed, he's not exactly a prince in this particular series. Anyway, thanks to all reviewers and such. REMEMBER I'm cool with constructive criticism. **

**Love ya! Next chapter should be up within two to three days :) **


	4. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, just the original scenarios and what-not here. This is also an AU. Hope you like it, and if you do or don't, reviews on how to make it better or just reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks :) **

**Author's Note**_: I've been dealing with a family tragedy, by the way, so please be patient with me for the next few weeks as far as updates go. What is currently going on in my family is well, none of your business, but I assure you I will do my best to update, it's just I'm having a difficult time at the moment. _

_Thanks, _

_Iesha _

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Katara sat up on her bed and looked out the window of her room. She tried and tried to fall asleep, but the more she closed her eyes the more the vision of her mother, sapphire eyes wide open in shock and a pool of blood soaking into the snow around her, plagued Katara's inner-most thoughts. Her throat began to dry and the walls around her steadily closed in, all the while her breathing became erratic, as if she was experiencing the nightmare all over again.

Katara took a deep breath and brought her legs in toward her as if in a meditation-like stance. She longed to clear her mind of the thought of her mother, but the closer she and the crew got to arriving at Ba Sing Se, the more the memory would intensify in her mind. She closed her eyes and placed her hands on her knees and began performing different breathing techniques to try and slow down her unsteady heartbeat.

The room became silent, but a presence remained that Katara felt as she carefully moved off of her bed and began to turn around. Her ears perked up and the hairs on her back stood on end as she realized there was someone else inside the room with her, and it was Sokka or the crew members. This person was a fire bender. Heat generated off the person in her room and Katara felt it on her own skin, but she couldn't see the person because no light came in through her window.

It was said that the walls of Ba Sing Se could obscure the moon of night and sun of day, but Katara always thought it was lie. She now wished that she would have thought otherwise.

Her first instinct was to attack, but the person in her room was quicker than she was. A warm hand with an almost fiery touch covered her mouth and a blind fold was placed over her eyes. Katara frantically struggled against the person, but he or she was incredibly strong; Katara could tell by the way their stomach tightened and their arms flexed with ease as they held her.

She flailed in the person's arms and tried in vain to summon water, but with her arms held back and the moon obscured she had no way doing it. As Katara was getting ready to break free, a whisper in her ear stopped all of her previous movements.

"You can't be trusted with the correct location of Warrior's Bay yet, so stop moving and let me take you to a different ship!"

The voice was that of a boy and it was strong, demanding, and above all else, arrogant. His voice also gave Katara goose-bumps. She silently wondered to herself how a voice could cause such a reaction, but a moment later her contemplations were put on hold. The voice came again,

"I'm really sorry about this…"

Katara felt the boy touch a spot behind her ear and her eyes began to droop in drowsiness. She quickly and quietly blacked out before falling limply into the arms of her kidnapper.

* * *

Zuko paced back and forth on the deck of Bumi's ship and every ten minutes or so he would grunt and reach his hand up to dark, raven-colored hair and muss it up. Jet, Zuko's best and most trusted friend, sat with a cigarette burning between his lips leaning on a wall for support. Jet's eyes went back and forth as he watched his friend curiously.

"Zuk, stop being so stupid. The chick was awake. So what?" said Jet, as he lazily took the cigarette from his lips and blew two perfect Os with the smoke. Zuko glared at his friend and continued to pace back and forth.

"Jet, you don't get it, you idiot. This is something bigger than what you think!"

There was one thing in his life that he ever kept a secret from Jet, and that was the night Zuko's father came home and destroyed the house brandishing the necklace at Zuko in a shocked sort of horror. It was too personal of a thing to share, even with his own most trusted friend.

"Oh, right. And Bumi isn't stoned out of his damn mind half of the time," replied Jet sarcastically as he raised himself up and threw the cigarette overboard.

"I'm being serious, Jet. This girl is…important," said Zuko, as he struggled to find the words to describe Katara. Zuko looked up at Jet, whose eyebrows were raised up into a sea of dark brown hair.

"Important? Are you okay, man? You seem off. A girl important to _you_? The last time you said that we were fourteen and you were convinced that that chick…uh, Jen or Jin or whatever, was your soul-mate. You don't think this chick's your soul-mate, do you?" asked Jet with a laugh, but there was a certain sense of concern behind his mockery.

"No, stupid, like I said…it's something bigger than that," replied Zuko quietly as he stopped pacing and picked at the sleeve of his long blood-red shirt. Jet sighed and shrugged, aware that Zuko wasn't in the mood for company, and then lit another cigarette and walked off to bed.

Zuko sat down in the place where Jet had previously been sitting and felt around in his pocket for the necklace. Before he had seen the girl he had thought it would be so easy to just out and return the necklace, but after her piercing blue gaze penetrated his amber one, he realized the task at hand was probably just as challenging as the fight to stay a student would be. His fingers grazed the soft black velvet tie of the necklace and he cringed involuntarily as he pictured the beautiful girl with the long wavy brown hair and deep sapphire eyes dead in the snow with the necklace lying in front of her. His finger stopped abruptly as it connected with the cold sapphire stone.

On the stone, there was an inscription in an old water bending language that he didn't know. When he met Yue he had been afraid to ask her if she knew what it meant for a while, and Master Pakku, her water bending instructor, just flat out scared Zuko to death when he was a kid, but eventually Zuko got over his fear of talking to Yue.

When he was eleven he went to her and asked her what the inscription meant. She was surprised that Zuko had such a beautiful water bending artifact, and asked him almost immediately where he got it from, but he told her that it was a secret. With that she told him what the inscription meant.

_I Love You Like the Moon Loves the Sun _

For years this inscription confused Zuko. The moon and sun were opposites, to him they seemed to hate each other. He went to his uncle with the necklace and told him what the inscription meant. Uncle Iroh's only reply was;

_"The sun has chased the moon and the moon has chased the sun ever since the beginning of time, there is no love like one that will never give up hope." _

* * *

Katara's eyes fluttered open and she looked around the dungeon like room she sat in. Seven other people sat around her. One was clearly an air bender. His head was shaved and tattoos of blue arrows caked his body. A shirt lay next to his unconscious body and for a moment Katara watched as his naked chest rose and fell softly as he slept. A girl was to her right, and Katara couldn't quite tell if this girl was awake or asleep. She had long raven hair and wore a flowing green nightgown. As Katara examined the room more closely, she noticed that everyone in it, including her own brother, were all wearing the night clothes.

Realization dawned on her that the seven people around her were the other seven fighters chosen. She examined everyone more closely. A girl on the side of the room slept sitting up and leaning on the cement wall behind her. She wore a red night gown and her dark brown hair lay limp at her shoulders. Katara knew, as she did in her own room, that this girl was a fire bender because of the heat that reverberated off of her. Even in this girl's sleep, the oxygen that flowed through her produced heat.

The girl had delicate features. Pale, pallid skin and yet her cheeks were tinged red, as though there was blush on her face.

"Stop staring at me, you weirdo," came a voice and Katara jumped, startled by the girl. "Chill out, Ice Princess, I've been awake for about ten minutes now…and you move around like a maniac. Very stealthy."

Katara watched as the girl's eyes fluttered open and two large rings of bright yellowy gold stared back at her. The girl shot her eyes heavenward in sarcasm.

"The name's Katara, and I prefer it over 'Ice Princess'" replied Katara with a grimace.

"Hell, I would too."

Katara's jaw clenched in aggravation and she felt herself slowly inching toward the girl, as though she was getting ready to attack, when two large doors at the front of the room flew open and an elderly man stood on the opposing side of it. Light barreled into the room and everyone with the exception of the fire bending girl and what Katara thought to be the fire warrior, shielded their eyes from the sun.

A goofy, almost crazy laugh was emitted from the old man who wore a large robe of green with rubies and jewels found only in the earth bending nation caves. His hair went every which way and a lop-sided crown was placed upon it, all the while his disproportioned eyes searched and surveyed the room.

The elderly man stopped laughing and proceeded to move away from the door. All eight of the strangers, including Katara, got up from their spots and walked slowly to the door in confusion, and when their eyes met the place in which they had been taken to, all eight strangers stared in disbelief.

The ship sat in a circular bay of crystal waters that the sun glistened on. There were beautiful trees of all shapes and sizes all around and the ground was covered in the most inviting shade of green grass the eight had every seen. The sky was a mixture of indigos, light blues, and dark blues, while the clouds were more beautiful and magnificent that the Northern Water Lights. It was as beautiful as a rain forest, with colors swirling all around.

"Welcome!" came the booming voice of the man who had woken the eight of them up. His eyes searched the group, and fell on the air bending boy that Katara had been watching earlier.

"Gorou, the air bender, and Ami the air warrior; Toph Be Fong, the earth bender, and Izumi the earth warrior; Azula, the fire bender, and Kenshin the fire warrior;"

For a moment, the elderly man's eyes paused as he surveyed Katara. A glint of mischief was in his eyes.

"That's a beautiful necklace you have there, Miss Katara," he said softly.

Katara frowned softly and looked down bringing her hand up to her throat where there was indeed a soft black velvet tied there. She quickly removed the necklace and examined it, her throat suddenly going dry. A memory of her mother smiling down at Katara, the very same necklace dangling from her neck, coursed through Katara's entire body and chills went down her spine. When Katara looked up again, the others were on their way off the boat, but Katara's shock was too much for herself to handle.

She was in a deep haze as she followed behind the other seven people and she kept on touching and feeling the cold sapphire stone in her hand, as if at any moment it would disappear. She stroked it and felt the ancient water bending inscription carved into it. She didn't know the ancient water bending language, but she immediately knew what the inscription meant. When she was a little girl her mother would whisper it to her every night before she would fall asleep.

_"Katara, I love you like the moon loves the sun." _

Katara reached up to her forehead, almost feeling the ghost of her mother's kiss upon it, but was taken out of her memory by the odd laughter of the elderly man once more. She had subconsciously followed the others off of the ship and when she looked around, she realized they were standing on the grass, but this time, there were more than just eight individuals. There were nineteen including the elderly man and herself.

She looked across the way to see two air fighters, one from head to toe in the traditional air bending monk style of orange and yellow, and the other in a beautifully flowing yellow dress. There were the earth benders. One stood out more than the other with his mane of brown hair and the swords he held at his sides. A cigarette was pressed between his lips as he leaned lazily onto a tree for body support. Beside him was someone Katara knew very much about. It was Yue, the water bending master, with her flawless skin and flowing silver hair, she smiled pleasantly at Katara. Lastly, Katara's eyes landed on the fire benders. One was a warrior who looked to be indifferent, bored almost, but the other; Katara knew who the other was straight away. A shiver ran up and down her spine as she thought of her kidnapper and made the connection between the fire bending boy standing before her and the one that had been in her room, waiting to die, the night before.

She found herself glaring in his direction and clasping the necklace in her hand even tighter.

Katara ripped her gaze away from Zuko and she returned to the elderly man, who had been introducing the warriors and benders to each other. She had regrettably missed the names of the others. The elderly man clapped his hands and smiled an odd smile. His eyes twinkled in delight.

"Well, my warriors and benders, I am Master Bumi of the Ba Sing Se School for Gifted Benders and Warriors, and welcome to Warrior's Bay."

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**Thanks for being patient, and I'm sorry to say, under the circumstances, you may have to be a little bit more patient with me during the weeks to come. There are things in my family that need taking care of. Enough said. Thanks for reading and make sure to review. **


	5. Chapter Four

**Author's Note: **I'm so sorry for how long I've been, and I feel like I must elaborate. My aunt has had cancer for a very long time now and for a while we thought she'd be okay, but it had gotten much worse so I flew out to Wisconsin from home to see her with my baby sister. She died not too long after. I've been so out of it these days, even though it's been about three months since she died. I feel as though finishing this story will help me keep my mind off of those things, so I'll be updating regularly now. Sorry for the long wait.

-Iesha-

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, just the original scenarios and what-not here. This is also an AU. Hope you like it, and if you do or don't, reviews on how to make it better or just reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks :)

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**Chapter Four**

Bumi sat at the head of the table smiling broadly at all sixteen of the fighters. Zuko sighed as he looked around at the new members of the table and began playing around with a fireball beneath it. It was something he did when he felt he needed to settle his nerves. The only other calming action he knew of was fighting, but since he was supposed to be enjoying a wonderful 'home-cooked' meal with his new 'brothers and sisters' he decided against the whole fighting idea.

"Warriors, I am so happy to have you here in my home. My students have been training hard for seven years and now they finally have someone to practice their new skills on!" said Bumi as he stood, giving a booming laugh and patting Aang, who sat at his side, on top of his dark head. Aang batted Bumi's hand away and made a child-like face sending it toward the water tribe girl who smirked and stifled a laugh.

Zuko watched in amusement. Although he knew she was nothing but trouble, he couldn't resist looking at her. When his father had come home brandishing the necklace that lay perfectly on her smooth, caramel skin, all General Ozai could talk about was the beauty of the water tribe woman and how peaceful she looked—even in death. It was apparent that her beauty had been passed to her daughter.

"For two weeks you eight," Bumi motioned toward the eight individuals sitting to his left, "will train with me and then you will fight these eight," he looked to each of the teenagers on his right side and gave a lop-sided grin, "to determine who will stay until the next great battle of Warrior's Bay."

Bumi moved to sit back in his place, but a voice spoke up from one of the new kids. It was a voice Zuko remembered and had a hard time forgetting.

A girl dressed in the finest of fire bending clothing stood with a serious expression on her face. She crossed her arms over her chest seemed to be tapping her foot on the ground.

"Who will we be fighting?"

Bumi looked to Zuko's sister and confusion and Zuko seemed to sink low in his seat as he watched. It was amazing how different she was. Still, very hard-headed and gifted with the beauty of his mother, but also a tad bit on the snobbish side and determined to undermine power.

"Azula, you will be fighting my current stu—"

"No, Master Bumi, she means will we be fighting our own kind or will we be fighting out of context of the nations as well as stature?"

Bumi looked over at Jet in surprise, and honestly, so did Zuko. Zuko had known Jet for seven years and never did he open his mouth to ever actually contribute a word of useful information. Actually, every time Jet spoke it was either for a humorous effect or he was just bored and wanted to say something off-hand and curious.

"Well, I haven't decided yet."

"Haven't decided?" started Azula, but the water bending girl, Katara, pulled her back down into her seat and whispered to her angrily and frantically. Azula then sighed, defeated, and jabbed a fork into the piece of chicken on her plate.

Zuko sighed in distaste.

Azula and Zuko had once been so close as siblings, but when she left him at the house alone she left him in a bitter rush.

"_Zuko, he's never coming back! Don't you get it? We're going to be alone forever! Father's gone! Mother abandoned us—"_

"_Mother died, Azula. Stop hating her because she died. She never abandoned—"_

"_Yes, she did! She did!" _

_Zuko looked at his sister as her chest heaved up and down. His baby sister. She had so much hatred laced into her features. Zuko always thought Zula had taken after his mother and to see such bitterness written into the wrinkles on her furrowed forehead and frown on her face made Zuko feel a sick sense of distress creep over him._

"_Zula," he said, taking a step toward her, but she took a step back and proceeded to run out of the dining room._

_The next day she was gone._

"Well, kids, eat up," said Bumi with that infectious smile on his face.

Zuko looked down at the mounds of food on his plate and furrowed his eyebrows at it. It was probably the best meal he would ever be given at Warrior's Bay, but he just couldn't down it. He wasn't hungry. Too many things had happened in just one day for him to even comprehend.

He stole one last look at the water tribe girl, and found that she was looking at him. For one brief moment the two caught each other's eye, and just like that the moment dispersed into the air around them. She was beautiful, but Zuko knew by the way her hollow stare penetrated him that she had motives other than proving how worthy the water tribe was. He just didn't know what those motives were.

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**All righty. I hope you liked it even though it was a tad bit short, but I promise to update very soon.**

**-Iesha-**


	6. Chapter Five

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, just the original scenarios and what-not here. This is also an AU. Hope you like it, and if you do or don't, reviews on how to make it better or just reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks :)**

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Chapter Five 

Katara looked to the very end of the table and surveyed the opponent she wanted so desperately to be matched up with. Bumi had been speaking about the school and his teachings and the fighting, but all Katara wanted was for the two weeks of training to dissolve before her and become the time to fight. It was always oddly a calming thing for her. Even as she would be bending against the fire nation soldiers, it made her happy to be in control and above all else, in a fight.

On her right sat Azula, the fire bending girl Katara had met on the ship. She had been given the pleasure of rooming with the impossible creature as well as the young earth bending girl whilst her stay in the Warrior's Bay quarters. Upon receiving this knowledge Katara almost found it in her right to escort herself out of Warrior's Bay and back to the comfort of her father's ship, but then she remembered her purpose and thought against it. Her only want was to avenge her mother's death.

Katara reached her hand up and caressed the necklace lazily clinging to her skin. She smiled slightly when her warm fingers touched against the cool sapphire stone. It was the same color as her mother's eyes.

"I can't believe we have to sit through this with that nutcase yapping his balls off," muttered Azula.

Katara rolled her eyes.

"Azula, come on, will you please show him some respect? He's probably the greatest warrior of all time. Try having a little bit of courtesy for a change," said Katara with a twinge of annoyance undermining her motherly tone. It was hard for her to be so nice to someone she knew she would be fighting had there not been a Warrior's Bay. Fire benders and water benders just don't get along, that's the way it had always been, and as Katara and Azula spoke in hushed tones both of them knew this petty fact.

"Yeah, well, he's like a million years old…I'm just saying he's a tad bit eccentric and, well…old."

Azula sat upright in her chair, a sign the conversation was over with, and then slumped into it using her fork to play around with various food artifacts on her dish. Katara took the moment as one to examine the people at the table.

At the head of the table, beside Azula, sat Master Bumi with that strange lop-sided ghost of a smile sitting happily on his face, and across from him was Aang, the air bender. Katara had taken an immediate liking to Aang. After Bumi introduced the new benders and warriors to the current ones they were given some down time to converse with each other. While Azula went to speak with her fellow fire benders and Sokka snuck away to admire Yue, Katara took the moment to examine her necklace and try to figure out how she had gotten it and where it had come from.

Aang had taken her examination for some sort of bored, loner act and came over immediately to chat. He seemed to be floating when Katara looked up at his almost child-like face. He had the face of a young boy, but the eyes of a wise man.

"_Watcha doing?" came the voice of the air bending boy. _

_Katara looked up from her necklace and placed it in her pocket examining the boy before her._

"_Well, I was looking at this old gift I was given, but I think it fell in my pocket and I'm too lazy to take it out so…what's your name?" Katara patted the spot beside her on the rock she sat. With a grin Aang plopped down beside her and outstretched his hand for Katara to shake. She hesitated for a moment, but then took his hand in hers._

"_Aang of the air bending nation, nice to meet you…"_

"_Oh—Katara!"_

_Katara smiled broadly and laughed aloud as Aang let go of her hand and spun around as if weightless. He looked back down at her gave out a laugh childish in its own._

"_Well, it's very nice to meet you Miss Katara of the water nation, I presume. I hope you'll like it here at Warrior's Bay."_

The dinner had ended and it seemed everything was in order. Everyone greeted each other and began to converse, and as Katara watched Azula make her way across the room with a serious expression set on her face, she noticed that Azula was on her way to greet one person and no one would be able to stop her.

On the opposite side of the room stood the fire bending warrior, Mae, yawning in the corner and lazily lifting her eyes up to the girl making a beeline toward her.

"The two went to a school together when they were children."

Katara jumped at the sound of his voice and then her shoulders tensed and her jaw clenched. It was him.

She took a deep breath and turned around to see the boy face to face. It was a curious thing. During the many battles she had been in Katara had used her strength in the art of bending to injure and kill many fire bending soldiers, but never had she looked into the eyes of her victim. He had amber eyes that burned golden in the light and melted into a warm, calming gaze—but behind his penetrating stare was a glint of over-confidence and tiny pixilated graphs of arrogant pride. Katara looked away as her nails seemed to dig into the skin of her tightly closed fists. She kept her fists at her side, because she knew she couldn't kill him when everyone was around.

"Oh, did they?" she replied, as sweetly as she could. She looked back up at him and then down again. She couldn't look at his face. If she looked at his face—into those eyes—she knew she'd never be able to go through with it. With one glance at those eyes she had learned so much about him, but she needed her victim to be the heartless mannequin she imagined him to be, not someone with such a soulful gaze and playful smirk, and so much more.

"Yeah, it was this fire bending school. Mae doesn't fire bend, but the school also taught and brought up warriors. It's different in the fire nation. The stature isn't dependant upon being a bender or being a warrior, it's dependant on how gifted you are."

His voice was smooth and mellow but hard and almost a little cool all at the same time. Katara's shoulders relaxed a bit and she found herself looking back up at him and back into those eyes. It was now apparent to her that he did have a soul, because a soul can't be hidden if it's blatantly staring back down at you.

"Hmm, sounds nice. Unfortunately some places aren't so subject to change," Katara replied with an edge chiseled into her voice. It seemed to have gone unnoticed by Zuko but Katara was well aware of the flicker that had been sent through his stare. With the vision of his death still flashing through her mind, she found it quite difficult not to memorize every part of his stare.

Zuko smirked down at her. Katara noticed the rarity of a smile. Smirks were the way Zuko played it, and somehow Katara was intrigued by his lack of genuine emotion and also peeved by it.

"Well, Miss…"

"Katara."

He nodded his head slightly with some sort of sign of respect. Inwardly I was torn between a scowl and the smile that had slightly formed on my face.

"Miss Katara, I believe that everything is subject to change."

Katara sighed and folded her arms over her chest in disagreement.

"Well…"

"Zuko, but I'm sure you knew that already."

"Zuko, first of all some things know they are subject to change but choose to be true to tradtion, and second of all don't be so sure of yourself. You might find out you're wrong one day," Katara finds herself smiling as she says it, but she doesn't know why.

Bumi stands and claps his hands together loudly.

"Well, you have a long day tomorrow starting bright and early, so sleep tight—and actually sleep."

Katara looked over to Zuko who was already being pulled away by the air bending warrior girl and the earth bending warrior boy.

"I may find I'm wrong one day, but that day was not today," he said with a laugh as he looked back at Katara. Katara opened her mouth to retaliate but then closed it and decided she had done enough speaking for one night and she desperately needed to sleep and pretend Zuko and his eyes and stare and soul, was just one big crazy dream.

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**Hope you liked it, please review. I'll be out with the new one shortly. There should be more action being picked up soon.**


	7. Chapter Six

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, just the original scenarios and what-not here. This is also an AU. Hope you like it, and if you do or don't, reviews on how to make it better or just reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks :)**

**Author's Note: **I don't know why but every time I start writing this I have to read over it five times because I always end up slipping up and making some parts first person, so I'm going to try a first person recollection on this chapter and if you guys want me to continue with it then leave a review saying to do so or if you don't want me to continue with it just say no. I'll re-do this chapter later in third person if that's the case. All right, thanks.

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**Chapter Six**

**Zuko's POV**

"Dude."

I looked over at Jet from my bed. When I had been brought to Warrior's Bay I had been given a room to share with Jet and Aang. Aang preferred the bunk bed above Jet, but I had issues with sleeping above and or under another guy.

"What Jet, it's three in the morning, I'm trying to sleep."

"Dude, you were uh, getting pretty talkative with the water tribe chick, you sure you're not convinced she's the love of your life?" he began wriggling his eyebrows and smiled mischievously. I rolled my eyes and turned on my side.

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," I replied.

"Oh, well on that note, you sure Jet's not your enemy because you two are practically gay together."

Jet and I both sat up and looked to where Aang was meditating on his bed. With a slight smirk toward each other we jumped up and piled on top of him. It was a brotherhood type of thing that I couldn't quite explain, but make a couple kids spend seven years together and you see what happens.

Katara's POV

I woke with a start. My breathing was much heavier than it normally would have been, and I didn't know why. I looked around the room and it was a sleepy atmosphere. The earth bending girl, who I found to be named Toph, slept soundly in her bunk, but Azula was a different story. She writhed around in her sleep tossing and turning and moaning in what seemed to be agony. I watched her face contort from anger to fear to indifference in a matter of seconds, but all was interrupted when the door to our room opened and Azula woke in what seemed to be a panic. I watched as her eyes settled on the room around her and she brushed off whatever dream she was having as if it was nothing, but it still left me dripping in curiosity.

Azula looked over to the door and then to me.

"Well, who is it?" she barked. I rolled my eyes and got up from my bed to walk over to the door.

The person standing behind it surprised me. It was Yue. She was no longer wearing her night clothing, like the other girls of my room and myself, but she was sheathed in water bending outer wear. The Northern Water Tribe outer wear. A part of me wanted to admire it, but pride took over and I simply ignored its artful presence taking in that of Yue herself in stead.

"Yes?" I asked.

She smiled warmly at me, like a mother would a child, and I almost felt sorry that I hadn't admired the clothing, but I'm sure she knew the way of the water tribes. We did not contact each other lest we needed immediate help. The Southern Water Tribe was a shack compared to intricate workings of the Northern Water Tribe. They were superior in every way, but the Southerners, like myself, still held as much pride as possible. We couldn't let anyone bring down our morale.

"I'm sorry I didn't come downstairs earlier, I must admit I slept in a bit too—they never give us such good food to eat at diner—but History of Bending should start in the library in about an hour and I wanted you three to be able to get some breakfast before heading to your first training class."

I couldn't believe how sweet she was being to me. All encounters I had ever had with Northerners were cold and forced.

"Oh, well…thank you very much, Yue," I said as nonchalant as I possibly could.

"Your welcome Katara," she said with a grin, "I know we're going to be great friends one day."

And with that she happily skipped away, leaving me in a fit of quilt. I closed to door quietly and flipped on the light walking over to Toph's bedside. As I reached up to pat her on the back, I heard Azula laughing behind me. I turned to her and frowned.

"I wouldn't do that, man, kid's a tough one. I've met her before at an underground bending match. She kicked the shit out of everyone that went up against her. Besides, she doesn't seem like the type of kid who needs to be woken up. I'll bet you she's been awake longer than you have."

I turned and sighed in frustration, annoyed by Azula, and patted my hand gently on Toph's back, which immediately tensed up.

"A; Don't touch me, and B; Firecracker over there was right, Miss Priss."

Azula cackled in delight and I grumbled and mumbled as I jumped off of the bottom bunk I stood on and rifled through my clothes to find something to wear.

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**I know very very very short chapter, but this week was very hectic for me. Sorry. I promise to get the next one out ASAP. Please review, they're greatly appreciated :)**


	8. Chapter Seven

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing.

**A/N: I know it's been a while...a very long, drawn out while. But the hiatus is done, I'm back from wallowing and I think my writing skill has even increased a bit, so I'll be finishing off this story, and hopefully you will all forgive me for not updating for what seems to have been forever.**

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I had always admired the grace in which Master Pakku worked. It was not the nature of a fire bender to be so accustomed to such grace, that was an honest given, but over the years while I had studied at his and Uncle Iroh's side the art of redirecting lightning, I liked to think that I had adopted at least a shadow of his grace. Uncle Iroh had all but mastered it, and sometimes that made me a little bit envious. As hard as it was for me to admit to, I've always thought water bending was one of the most beautiful things to witness. I had grown up in a world where it was a senseless warped common knowledge that the water nation, above all the other nations, was the most beneath the fire nation. My father would tell me stories of how water nation mongrels would cower at his feet during war. It wasn't until I was given the necklace that I even considered my father's words to be nothing more than lies.

"Good Zuko, I want you to picture how water flows in your mind and let your body become one with that soft current. Let it flow through your arms unto your fingertips. Let it take control of you, rather you taking control of it."

While the other students had decided to join the new comers at Monk Gyatso's history of bending lesson, I had decided that I wanted try to redirect lightning once more. I had been getting slightly all right at it, but I still couldn't do it at will. It took hard work and dedication. I wish it was something that would just come easy to me, but it's most certainly not. Redirecting lightning, on the contrary, was more than a difficult feat for me. I couldn't let my body harness the energy or relax enough to even try. The first time I had redirected lightning my body had filled itself with this overwhelming source of energy and light that I couldn't explain. I had felt complete, but also very scared and in turn very tense. I felt like I couldn't trust myself with that much raw power in my grasp. It was like I thought I could actually hurt someone with it…or maybe even hurt myself, and in all actuality I almost did.

It didn't matter though. The feeling was addictive. All I wanted was to harness that power again. It didn't matter how much it freaked me out, it was still the best feeling I had ever experienced.

"I want you to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Take long breaths. Fill your abdomen with as much air as you can, then release. Match your breathing with the pace of the current you are picturing in your mind."

He spoke softly, and his voice was calming, but I was starting to get frustrated. It was hard enough knowing that redirecting lightning was something I could barely do—not to mention the fact that Uncle Iroh was watching with great interest. I always felt compelled to do my best when he was around. Over the years he had taken over as my father figure. The one thing, though, that set him apart from my real father—his brother—was that Uncle Iroh was actually good at being a father.

It was really sad to think about what had happened to his son. Lu Ten had been a soldier, just like Uncle Iroh had been a very long time ago. Lu Ten had been killed in battle…but not by someone of the water nation. Lu Ten had spoken out against the will of one of his generals. Because of this, during battle, that certain general chose to teach Lu Ten a lesson—unfortunately, the general had mistakenly killed Lu Ten, engulfing him head-on in flames.

Uncle Iroh doesn't like to talk about it, but a week later that general went missing and Uncle Iroh had some-what spontaneously decided to leave his life as a lieutenant behind. Shortly after, through his membership as a member of the Lotus, he had met with Master Bumi and was asked to take up a position as a teacher and instructor at Warrior's Bay. He had, of course, said yes. The lost general, however, was never found or spoken of ever again.

"Now, Zuko, be patient please, you're face is beginning to look strained. You need to relax your shoulders, they're becoming rigid. Every muscle in your body needs to be free-flowing."

I rolled my eyes as Master Pakku began poking my shoulders, pointing out the spots in which my muscles were tense. That was my main issue when it came to redirecting lightning. I couldn't let my body release of its tension. It made me feel like I was letting my guard down, and all my life I had been told to do just the opposite—never let my guard down, always be on my toes waiting for the next person to attack.

It was the fire bending way.

"Okay, we'll try something different…think of something that makes you relax."

I furrowed my eyebrows in thought, while still moving my arms in the same fluid motion over and over and over again.

Master Pakku's request almost made me want to stop all together. There wasn't really anything that made me relax to the point of being completely comfortable. I racked my brains, coming to the conclusion that I had no life whatsoever and I had been brain-washed so much by the fire nation that I could never be like Uncle Iroh. It was then that I let my arms drop to my sides and gave Master Pakku a sulky, frost-bitten stare. He sighed.

"Zuko, you have to at least try to meditate throughout the week if you want this to work. I've seen you redirect lightning before and when you do you're a natural at it—but it will only ever happen again if you learn to control the anger inside of you. You must learn to be one with your inner zen."

I rolled my eyes.

"Master Pakku, I'm not exactly sure I have an inner zen—I mean, those other times I redirected lightning may have well been flukes. I can't even loosen myself up for half a second…it's like I have a giant stick up my ass or something..." I retorted, muttering the last part to myself.

Master Pakku looked at me for a long moment and then shook his head and plopped down beside me, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. He breathed in deeply and then opened up one eye and looked up at me expectantly, his eyebrows raised.

_Meditation again?_, I thought moodily, slowly lowering myself down beside him reluctantly. I hated mediation. It never helped at all with anything. Actually, instead of helping it usually just made everything worse. My mind would end up wandering to meaningless things and then I would get frustrated because I was supposed to be clearing my thoughts and trying to instill in myself a subsequential state of blissful integrity or whatever. It didn't matter though. Obviously I couldn't even try and make myself do such a thing.

Master Pakku shut his open eye and breathed in deeply once more, easily falling into a zen-like state of mind. I sighed, letting my back hunch over as I sat there beside Master Pakku, my eyes scanning the area around the two of us. The reason why the school was put on Warrior's Bay and also the reason why Master Bumi chose to keep the location a secret, was because Warrior's Bay in itself was an island of a peculiar state. On one side was a lush island type entity where Master Bumi would welcome visitors, but on the opposite end, where I sat with Master Pakku, was a place where ice burgs floated vicariously through two large snow-capped mountains and a watery lake filled with dangerous rapids. To the far left of the island was an arid, desert like area where the art of sand-bending had apparently been invented, then to the right was a large field of mountains and rock. The island was fairly large, almost that of a continent, but because it was still nothing more than an island, every bit of it was accessible to a certain extent.

I looked around uninterested by the cold, rigid place in which I had my lessons. Although I thought the art of water-bending was beautiful, I didn't particular care for the climate in which the water nation tribes lived. Cool tundra type weather greatly contrasted to growing, illuminating humidity of the fire nation. I much preferred to house in a place where heat was all around me, rather than myself being subjected as heat's only source.

Uncle Iroh walked over to the two of us with a smile on his face, and he slowly sat down beside me with a tired groan. He patted my knee.

"Give it a try, Zuko," he asked with a smile, before he crossed his legs and closed his eyes succumbing to his own psyche. I sighed loudly and exasperatedly. I was trapped in the land of the old and wise and there was no way out except to just get it over with, so I decided I would give it another go, even though meditation sucks and the only kid around my age who can sit there and do it for hours on end is Aang but he's just weird…and Yue too, but she's good at everything.

I closed my eyes and tried to clear my thoughts, but things just kept on racing back into my mind. I wouldn't have been so frustrated had the things racing to my mind been helpful—but they were just so goddamn mundane! I would think things like _"Jet smokes too much" _or _"Mae really needs to lighten up"_ but never anything worth while! Never anything that could help me relax!

I groaned and opened my eyes, standing abruptly, while the two men on either side of me ignored my frustrations, lost in their own worlds. _Why is this so hard for me?_ I exclaimed in my mind while on the outside I simply stood glaring through my loose strands of hair toward the distance. I reached into my jean's pocket instinctively, as if I had wanted to play with something inside of it, and when I felt nothing there it then occurred to me that I had given what had been there away.

I thought for a long moment about the necklace that used to lay in my pocket and a feeling settled on me that I couldn't quite explain. My mind had wandered to Katara, the water bending girl, and how pretty she looked in the necklace and how well it fit her. A small smile formed on my face as I crossed my arms over my chest and let my features soften and my icy glare turn warm.

A hand momentarily patted my shoulder and I turned to see Master Pakku standing behind me with a smile on his face.

"Let's try again, shall we?" he said with complete confidence. I glanced back at Uncle Iroh who was seemingly meditating, but I saw one of his eyes open and watch me go back to making fluid arm motions once more.

"Whatever you were thinking about, use it. It could come to your advantage in this situation."

I smirked to myself. I had no problem keeping my mind wrapped around the image of a beautiful girl.

**

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Well, there you have it!


	9. Chapter Eight

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar, nor do I own it's original characters or scenarios or whatever.

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As I watched the monk perform various acts of air bending, at first I had been absolutely enthralled—it wasn't everyday one was able to see a master air bender do such things—but after the initial excitement had died down I began wracking my brains on what had happened the night prior. I couldn't help but feel a little bit put off by the fact that Zuko didn't seem to be that horrible of a human being. On the contrary, despite the bite of arrogance in his voice and body language, he seemed to be just the type of person I would actually like, but…it doesn't matter, I'm here for one soul purpose and one soul purpose only…right?

I groaned to myself rubbing my eyes with my fists. I couldn't let anything get in the way of my mission. I just couldn't do that. My mother was the one person in my life who I could count on—she was the one person in my life who I loved more than anything. Sokka had the same relationship with Hokoda—but even though this was true, he just didn't understand my pain. He wasn't there. He didn't see the cold, distant look in that heartless bastard's eyes.

Sokka never had to witness a murder done in such cold, unforgiving blood.

I'll never forget his face—the way it had looked before he killed her...they way his amber eyes had flashed red so dangerously...

Zuko's amber eyes.

They have the same eyes and last night I hadn't even recalled that fact—I had just given a total disregard to his eyes…I had liked them…his golden-amber eyes…

I suddenly felt very sick to my stomach. I looked around the room frantically and saw that Zuko was not there, but then I looked to my left to see Azula giving me an odd, slightly worried look. Her worry transpired through her eyes—her stupid golden eyes!

I sighed and looked forward again, watching the monk as he spoke quickly, barely taking in the fact that the students around me were raising their hands to answer his questions and laughing along to whatever jokes the monk had made. My stare had gone completely numb and utterly indifferent. My body had gone rigid and I immediately tensed. It then clicked that Azula—this girl that I had been starting to consider annoying, but a friend no less—had made a hurried bee-line toward Zuko the day we had arrived at Warrior's Bay because the two were related. How they were related, I still didn't know, but by the way here eyes glowed golden and shined off amber I could only make one logical educated guess.

She was his sister…

I felt my teeth come down hard on my lip, biting away, just like it used to do when I was nervous during water bending training as a child. It was hard to conceal the fact that I wasn't listening at all and that I was lost inside in my thoughts, but I didn't quite care. To realize something as crazy as the fact that everything could potentially have to go into overdrive over the fact that General Ozai had two siblings instead of one…I just didn't know what to do. I had already began to bond with Azula. I didn't care about Ozai and I certainly didn't care about emotionally hurting Ozai, but Azula? I had begun to care about her, whether I liked to admit that or not…

And then there was Zuko. I couldn't believe that I had been so…nice to him…and what made matters far worse was that he was so nice to me as well. I wish he would've just been a huge dick! Then this would be so much easier to do!

Actually…I wish I had thought my "brilliant" plan through more before jumping to rash action.

* * *

"I did it. I did it all on my own."

Jet raised his eyebrows at me as he sat sharpening his pocket knife. Obviously he had no idea what I going on about—but I didn't care. I had redirected lightning and oddly enough, I felt like I owed it all to Katara, even though I barely knew the girl.

"What, prey tell, did you do all on your own, Zuk?" he asked, highly uninterested. I swear, sometimes the guy can be just as bad as Mae.

"He redirected lightning, you asshole. He's only been going on and on about how he hasn't done it yet all damn week."

Both Jet and I looked up in surprise to see Aang walking into our dorm room with a look of utter let-down on his face. This was a more than odd thing to see, considering that the kid usually looked like rays of sun shot out of his ass.

"What's up, Aang? You look like you're going to slit your wrists or something."

Aang rolled his eyes and floated up to his bunk. Jet and I shared a worried look and then both stood on the base of the bottom bunk in order to talk to Aang. He sighed and sat upright, leaning onto the wall.

"Bumi just told me that I'm going to have to fight Kane in three days…I have to fight her in order to decide which air bender will have to represent the school—it's the same for you guys. Jet you're fighting Haru and Zuko you're fighting Mae."

"What?"

I almost fell out of the bed. I didn't know we would have to fight each other—I didn't know I would have to battle my friends! People I grown up with! I looked over to Jet half-expecting him to be more outraged than myself, but he just shook his head, his eyes darkening, and jumped off the bottom bunk. I watched with curiosity as he sat down on the ground and began sharpening his pocket knife once more—but it didn't take long for curiosity to turn into frustration.

"Jet?! Did you hear Aang? We're going to have to fight against our friends—our family, for godssake! Jet!"

He looked up at me darkly.

"Zuko, you didn't see this coming? Come on, Zuk, we've been training here for years. You're level of bending far surpasses that of every single one of those new-comers just like Aang's and just like me with my fighting. We have to fight each other…that's just how it goes."

My initial frustrations started to fade as I began thinking about what Jet was saying. It was true, we had been training with the best for years—but people like my sister, people like Katara—they had been out there in the real world. They knew what it was like to be in a real fight to the death. We were just artificial masters of bending and fighting—it was people like Azula and Katara who were better and I wanted to fight someone who was better. I wanted to earn my spot back at school. I didn't want to take it from someone who was my friend.

"That's bullshit—they're more experienced than we are when it all comes down to it!"

Jet's eyes flashed as he set his pocket knife down and stood up against me.

"Zuko, _that's _bullshit. You're thinking of people who have been in the war, huh? Well open you're fucking eyes! We've been in the war—I've been in the war—you have! Aang has! We're all apart of it. We just didn't know it...well, you and Aang didn't. I knew...I knew the second I found out my parents were killed. I knew..."

I watched him carefully for a moment as he reached up and grabbed at his hair, his eyes shutting tightly and his lips pressing down into a thin line.

"What are you talking about?" I asked gruffly.

"He means not only are we products of a war—we've products _for_ war. Why do you think Bumi brought the school out of obscurity when he did? The war was just beginning. He had to figure out a way to stop it…"

I turned to look at Aang whose face had gone white.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"It means the war ends with us," Jet replied, grabbing at his pocket knife once more and throwing it onto his dresser.

Where was I when the two of them came to that conclusion?

"Zuko, Bumi called us all out of Monk Gyatso's class before it ended—just the students. He told us the day the four nations' leaders had been here he had made a decision with them. He told them that they didn't need to fight anymore because he would resolve their differences."

I still didn't understand where they were going with all of this…what did that mean?

"God, man! Do we have to fucking spell it out for you?" Jet yelled, pushing me into the wall. I immediately retaliated, shoving harshly back at him.

"What the hell was that for, douche bag!"

Aang jumped off of his bunk frantically and pulled me off of Jet, giving the both of us a dirty look.

"Don't do that. Don't fight with one another, it's stupid. It's a stupid thing to do, you jackasses!"

Jet and I glared at one another, both of us breathing very hard.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked with an angry bite radiating off of my voice—but also something desperate made it's way through my voice as well. I was just so confused…

There was so much heat coming off of my body that I felt like the oxygen in the room was smuggling me.

"We fight each other to see who's best fit to represent the school; and then we fight our rival nation's representative to see who's best fit to run the world."

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DUN DUN DUN! Ahh, Bumi and his crazy schemes...


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